Kyrgyzstan-Pakistan tie finely poised

Heavy rainfall at the Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas Asia/Oceania Pre-Qualifying Girls event in Kuching, Malaysia brought a premature end to the final Group A clash of the day on Tuesday.

With Sri Lanka and Kazakhstan safely home and dry after recording 3-0 wins over Jordan and Iran respectively, the tie between Kyrgzstan and Pakistan was suspended due to wet weather in the deciding third rubber.

The interruption couldn’t have come at a worse time for Pakistan, whose doubles pair Iman Qureshi and Kainat led Kyrgzstan’s Arina Beliaeva and Eliza Askarova 76(2) 32 and were just three games away from scoring their nation’s first win of the event after narrowly losing 2-1 to Kazakhstan in their opening tie.

The match will resume after the conclusion of the previously scheduled matches on Wednesday, with Kyrgzstan ultimately hoping to overturn the deficit and maintain its unbeaten start to the Under 16s qualifying event. They face a tough day on Wednesday, with a tie against Group A leaders Sri Lanka to play first.

The team to beat in the competition, Sri Lanka dropped just seven games against Jordan in their second match on Tuesday. Second-placed Kazakhstan proved similarly dominant, albeit after a testing start as Darya Shevchenko survived a scare in the opening rubber to defeat Iran’s Ghazal Pakbaten 36 62 61.

North/Central American & Caribbean Pre-Qualifying

In the Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas North/Central American & Caribbean Pre-Qualifying event in La Libertad, El Salvador, Puerto Rico stole the headlines, conceding just two games against Jamaica to become the only one of eight teams competing on Monday in the girls’ Under 16s event to win without reply.

Following the lead of the boys, Costa Rica and Barbados also achieved wins on day one, defeating Panama and Honduras respectively 2-1, while Bermuda delivered a confident start by defeating Bahamas in the deciding doubles.